SWIMMING BLOG

​There are a variety of reasons that one to one swimming lessons work better than group lessons. As an adult, the biggest benefit is that one to one lessons will be tailored to your needs, goals and starting point. Strictly Swimming Lessons London will design your one to one lessons to bring the best results. Whether you are an adult looking for an introduction to swimming or an adult looking to improve your stroke or fitness, our swimming lessons will meet your needs and personal goals.

Beginner Level Adults

Adult’s wanting to learn to swim usually have a different starting point. Some adults have an absolute fear of getting into the swimming pool. Other adults can easily enter the swimming pool and swim with a few swimming strokes but have absolutely no balance in the water and need to then put their feet on the pool floor. Within Strictly Swimming Lessons London, our aim is to work on all problems in a clients’ stroke, breathing and balance in the water, amongst many other elements. Our tailor-made lessons will work on your problems during your private time with your coach (rather than working on the problems that the group may have). Many adults whom have never learned to swim often have a fear of the water. Splashing and movement of the water in the pool can often exacerbate this fear during a group lessons, whereas a quieter, more peaceful private swimming lessons is often a better option for people with a fear of water and wanting to develop their confidence in the water.

Improver Level Adults

Equally for adult ‘improver’ one to one swimming lessons, the biggest benefit is that clients will often progress much faster than in a group lesson. Strictly Swimming Coaches London will focus in more detail on your problems within your swimming strokes and correct your individual problems. One to one interaction with your coach will allow clients to excel to a higher level, as you discuss your problems in your swimming strokes in more detail. Our coaches will devise both a short term and long term plan for every one of our private clients, which only adds to the experience of taking private lessons. We also will arrange all of your one to one lessons at a time that is convenient to you. Many of our clients are unable to commit or make every week of our group lessons, so our one to one private lessons can be scheduled around your commitments

Swimming is taught to children as a valuable life skill for survival and as a form of exercise in the water. As an adult who may have never learned to swim, it is easy to think that all is lost and there is no point in trying to learn. Whether you are in your twenties, forties or in retirement, it is NEVER too late to learn to swim.

Swimming is a wonderful way to keep your body and mind strong and healthy and the benefits can help prolong a healthy mind. You are not alone as an adult non-swimmer and it’s never too late to learn. In fact, it can be more fun to take lessons as an adult. It is a misconception to think that only children can learn to swim efficiently. In reality, there are lots of adults who have not learned but now want to swim with their children and grandchildren, feel conformable in the pool and sea whilst on holiday or simply take up the sport to develop their fitness. As swimming is a low impact form of exercise which means that the supportive nature of the water puts less stress on the body and our joints as we get older. Any adult knows how running affects the knees as they get older, hence swimming is the five star sport for adults and lessons will help fastrack your skills.

If you feel that you are not confident around water at the pool, have very little fitness or unhappy with your current body shape, our coaches are experienced with clients of all types and standard, and our lessons will help you overcome your fears and inspire you to continue during and after your first lesson.

Our venues are luxury private health clubs and our swimming pools are incredibly quiet (which many of our adult clients express how this has helped them develop their swimming, their fitness and their confidence in the water during lessons).

Tips for Learning To Swim As An Adult:

Take the plunge (literally) – the hardest part is overcoming the fear and embarrassment, but by making the call to chat about what we can offer and discovering the quiet times during the week, we can help you make that first step. After this, lessons becomes easy and fun!

Find some goggles for your lessons that fit your face and eye sockets – you don’t need to spend a fortune on your goggles, but we recommend that you try some on before you buy. Our coaches will bring beginner clients some different goggles for you to try on your first lesson. Your googles will not only keep water out of your eyes, they will help you in many things including being less hesitant in taking on your breathing technique

Work at your own speed – we will tailor our lessons to work at a pace that is comfortable and enjoyable to you

Practice – regular practice and frequency between lessons does add up to faster progression

Learn to relax and don’t fight the water – this is key to success. Adults can often be more tense than children when learning to swim

Communicate your fears and frustrations with your coach during your lessons – talking through the problem and visualising the skill with your coach, can help you rid yourself of these problems

Don’t give up if you have a frustrating lesson – developing a skill can take a number of practices but by getting in the water as much as you can, these skills come together and develop the whole stroke

Benefits of swimming lessons for adults

Swimming is the best way to work your lungs (adults tend to lose their aerobic capacity as they get older, but swimming lessons will develop the lungs and keep you younger)

Swimming is much easier on the impact (most adults have some injury or ‘niggle’ of some sort, swimming is a low impact sport and a much less stress on our aging bodies)

Swimming training and lessons count as both cardio and strength training (I don’t know any adult in London who doesn’t struggle to find the time to fit in their workouts and swimming lessons)

Swimming can reduce daily stress (apart from endorphins bring released during exercise, swimming in and under the water can be incredibly calming for those adults with a busy life)

Swimming works unused muscles (opposite to many adults sitting at their desk for 8 hours per day)

Swimming increases blood flow to the brain by 15 percent when submerged in water (and many older adults strive to maintaining brain function for many obvious reasons

The need for swimming drills in learning to swim correctly and efficiently has been adopted by swimmers and coaches across the world for decades.

A drill can be used by adult swimmers of all levels during lessons and is simply a specific exercise that focuses on a particular aspect of a swimming stroke. By isolating one aspect of the swimming stroke, drills have proven to correct stroke technique and speed up the learning process of new skills (for both children and adult lessons).

Swimming drills are designed to be progressive, teaching you one skill at a time. This progressive (stage by stage) process allows you to learn any of the four strokes at your own pace, with the knowledge that you are swimming in a controlled, emphasised manner.

There are various aims and goals when using drills during lessons, including developing balance in the water, correcting body roll, increasing hold on the water amongst many others. Correcting your drills during lessons is important if you want to master an effective swimming technique. Like children, adult swimmers should learn to build up a drill progressively and slowly (with logical sequences) and increase the level of difficulty of the drill as you feel stronger and more controlled. When reverting to your regular swimming stroke, you should feel stronger, faster and swimming with less effort.

Competitive swimmers train endlessly with the use of drills, as they have proven to improve swimming technique and efficiency significantly. Even adults learning to swim should and do follow the same method.

Why do adult swimmers need to practice swimming drills?

When we perform drills during our training or lessons, our movements are usually completely differently or exaggerated than we would normally perform during our regular swimming stroke. Old problems or bad habits in the stroke can be identified and eliminated by the sheer nature of emphasizing a stroke point during a drill. Isolating a stroke problem is vital in relearning any part of the stroke. The biggest issue in stroke correction for adults is getting the body to forget old patterns that actually feel natural (even if they are incorrect). With practice and lessons, drills can reprogram a swimmer’s action and muscle memory. Breaking down every single element into components, plus repeated practice of these components, creates this muscle memory and overcomes old habits. Training the body to replicate these actions over and over again is the ultimate goal of swimming drills. This ‘re-training’ of the body is needed on every single progression (stage) of the drill.

The best way to practice swimming drills as adults

It is very easy to perform a drill without a specific focus. Equally, one of the common problems of a training on swimming drills, is to focus on too many technique points. Select one technique component and focus completely on this component during a given swimming lesson. Once this is mastered, refocus on a new component on the next lesson.During your lessons, always practice your drills by swimming steadily and controlled and never rush your stroke. Be aware that a new drill can take a couple of lessons to master.

The sooner you start incorporating perfect swimming drills into your routine as a beginner adult, the sooner you will gain strength, balance and power into your swimming. Our coaches and lessons will help you develop and extensive list of swimming drills that you can use during your own workouts to make you a faster, stronger swimmer.

Why Fix your Swimming Stroke?Are you looking to take your swimming fitness to the next level? Do you need to improve your freestyle technique to achieve this? Let us help you discover how to improve your swimming technique via our elite coaches and swimming lessons.

Having a good freestyle swimming technique is essential for an effective stroke and speed. Being effective means either being relaxed while swimming at slow to moderate speed or swimming fast without being exhausted too quickly. Our swimming tips will help you become a more effective freestyle swimmer.The challenge for the uncoached swimmer is that there are so many elements of the freestyle stroke to copy and correct, so developing your swimming can seem daunting. Which elements of the stroke should you work on first? Which corrections will result in the most improvement?

Luckily, the fundamentals of swimming and the drills used to help improve one’s freestyle still remain the same and are still used today with enormous success in our lessons. Swimming freestyle is not complicated, but swimming freestyle like a champion is a matter of small details making the difference. Our coaches will show you these details with a biomechanical breakdown of your swimming stroke and propose a swimming workout to work on them.

When developing your swimming stroke, always remember that some stroke points can be applied immediately; others will need some time to be mastered. So enjoy trying them out and be patient if it takes some time to master them.

If you've made it to adulthood without learning to swim or even learning fully, it's never too late to start. Whether it's to learn to swim with your kids, or to use swimming for fitness, adults lessons can help boost your confidence in the water. ​Many people learn to swim as a child but don't continue after lessons at school, and as adults feel they have forgotten all of their skills. This is not completely true. Many of our clients find learning a new skill as an adult exciting and fulfilling.

Swimming is the five star sport with little stress on the body compared to most sports and it is the perfect time to learn to swim as an adult for this reason. At Strictly Swimming, we specialise in adult swimming. We have adult clients ranging from absolute beginners, improvers to advanced performers. We offer adult swimming lessons for individuals, groups or even share a lesson with a friend. We also run adult triathlon swim lessons and courses across London.

AUTHOR

​Paul started competing in swimming from the age of 8 and eventually went on to represent his country all over the world. During his time at University, Paul specialised in Aquatics and the Biomechanics of Swimming and produced numerous theses on swimming performance.